There are two main objectives in this unit: to test the quality of a fresh water body and to find out what kinds of macro organisms live in it. In order to make this unit more meaningful to the students, I chose to test the pond behind their school. Since the students are familiar with it and see it every day when walking by, they already have a somewhat personal connection to this water body. Also, I will give them several examples about their (and everyone else’s) potential actions that can have an impact on the quality of the water and on the organisms living in it. By learning about non-point pollution, students will realize that their actions can have an indirect impact on the life in water (i.e. pouring paint, oil, anti-freeze, and other contaminants directly into storm drains).
The use of inquiry is being implemented throughout this whole unit. The whole Water Testing Project is an investigative research project. Students begin this unit by generating a hypothesis about the general condition of the pond. From there on, the whole unit evolves sequentially until we reach the final phase and revisit the initial hypothesis to reflect on our observations. Students are really quite engaged and acting as “real scientists” for the two-week span.
In order to progress through the sequential unit, students must use their prior knowledge and experiences from the preceding lessons (i.e. lesson about learning to use the test kits precedes the lesson of actually conducting the tests at the pond). All the lessons are designed so that they are building on each other. With each lesson, students gain knowlegde and experience that they will need to apply in the following lesson.
In order to help students make sense of the materials and the purpose of this lesson, I will continually provide formative feedback to them. This will help the students as well as myself to identify any aspects about their performance that need to improve. I will do this in a very non-judgmental manner. I will also use an end of the unit summative assessment. This will be a comprehensive collection of key points about the unit that the students will be asked to express back to me in a written form.
Lastly, this unit integrates science and the effective use of technology. In many of the lessons, students will have an opportunity to engage in online research and then share their findings during whole class discussions. Another technological aspect of this unit is the use of various sampling kits by the students, which allows them to make direct observations and draw conclusions about the water quality.
My ultimate goal for teaching this unit is for the students to gain an appreciation for how a scientific investigation process works.
The use of inquiry is being implemented throughout this whole unit. The whole Water Testing Project is an investigative research project. Students begin this unit by generating a hypothesis about the general condition of the pond. From there on, the whole unit evolves sequentially until we reach the final phase and revisit the initial hypothesis to reflect on our observations. Students are really quite engaged and acting as “real scientists” for the two-week span.
In order to progress through the sequential unit, students must use their prior knowledge and experiences from the preceding lessons (i.e. lesson about learning to use the test kits precedes the lesson of actually conducting the tests at the pond). All the lessons are designed so that they are building on each other. With each lesson, students gain knowlegde and experience that they will need to apply in the following lesson.
In order to help students make sense of the materials and the purpose of this lesson, I will continually provide formative feedback to them. This will help the students as well as myself to identify any aspects about their performance that need to improve. I will do this in a very non-judgmental manner. I will also use an end of the unit summative assessment. This will be a comprehensive collection of key points about the unit that the students will be asked to express back to me in a written form.
Lastly, this unit integrates science and the effective use of technology. In many of the lessons, students will have an opportunity to engage in online research and then share their findings during whole class discussions. Another technological aspect of this unit is the use of various sampling kits by the students, which allows them to make direct observations and draw conclusions about the water quality.
My ultimate goal for teaching this unit is for the students to gain an appreciation for how a scientific investigation process works.
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